There is mounting concern that social media sites contribute to political polarization by creating “echo chambers” that insulate people from opposing views about current events. We surveyed a large ...sample of Democrats and Republicans who visit Twitter at least three times each week about a range of social policy issues. One week later, we randomly assigned respondents to a treatment condition in which they were offered financial incentives to follow a Twitter bot for 1 month that exposed them to messages from those with opposing political ideologies (e.g., elected officials, opinion leaders, media organizations, and nonprofit groups). Respondents were resurveyed at the end of the month to measure the effect of this treatment, and at regular intervals throughout the study period to monitor treatment compliance. We find that Republicans who followed a liberal Twitter bot became substantially more conservative posttreatment. Democrats exhibited slight increases in liberal attitudes after following a conservative Twitter bot, although these effects are not statistically significant. Notwithstanding important limitations of our study, these findings have significant implications for the interdisciplinary literature on political polarization and the emerging field of computational social science.
This study examined the echo chamber phenomenon and opinion leadership on Twitter based on the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Network analysis and 'big data' analytics were employed to analyze more ...than 50 million tweets about the two presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, during the election cycle. Overall, the results suggested that Twitter communities discussing Trump and Clinton differed significantly in the level of political homogeneity and opinion leadership, and that certain opinion leaders were responsible of creating homogeneous communities on Twitter. This study made a theoretical contribution to the literature by linking opinion leadership and Twitter's network structure and shedding light on what may have caused the echo chamber problem to happen in an emerging media landscape.
BACKGROUND:Social media key opinion leaders (SMKOLs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) are 2 leading delivery strategies for HIV self-testing (HIVST). This study compared respondent ...characteristics, linkage to care, antiretroviral treatment, and cost of HIVST among men who have sex with men (MSM) recruited via SMKOLs and CBOs in China.
METHODS:Between January and December 2018, SMKOLs distributed HIVST advertisements to MSM through WeChat public platforms; simultaneously, CBOs distributed HIVST program messages to local MSM. All participants were required to pay a deposit to apply for the HIVST kit and had their deposit refunded after completing an online survey and uploading HIVST results. Trained staff provided HIV referral services by telephone and WeChat.
RESULTS:One thousand seven hundred forty-three 63.0% (1743/2766) and 1023 37.0% (1023/2766) individuals met criteria via SMKOLs and CBOs, respectively. MSM reached by SMKOLs had a lower HIV seropositive rate 2.1% (33/1561) vs. 12.5% (100/803) and higher proportion received antiretroviral treatment 94.4% (31/33) vs. 29.0% (29/100) compared with CBO-recruited MSM (all P < 0.05). The average number of HIVST respondents recruited by each investigator in SMKOL-strategy was higher than that of CBO-strategy (290 vs. 49). The SMKOLs had lower cost of per person tested (USD 13.18 vs. USD 101.21) and per newly identified HIV infection case (USD 632.66 vs. USD 812.70).
CONCLUSIONS:SMKOLs have lower cost of per person tested, whereas CBOs can reach MSM subpopulations with higher HIV seropositive rates. Both recruitment methods are efficient and should be used as complementary HIVST delivery strategies to address low HIV testing coverage among Chinese MSM.
With the rapid development of the Internet technology, a large number of opinion leaders have emerged on social media platforms, affecting users' purchase decision-making behavior. opinion leaders of ...social network have advantages on users ' decision -making process, and can guide users’ opinion in a dynamics process. Based on opinion dynamics, this paper introduces the bounded confidence model of Hegselmann-Krause (HK) model, and improves the model with introducing the opinion similarity and closeness. Using simulation experiments to describe the dynamics process of the impact of opinion leaders on followers. The experimental results show that when the opinion of opinion leaders and followers are similar and closely high, the followers’ opinion in the network are more concentrated.
Research and applied evidence suggest that online opinion leaders are important promoters of products and services. However, managers and firms need to choose which opinion leaders to work with and ...better understand how to collaborate with those leaders to promote different types of products and services. Online opinion leaders should be used to promote the experiential (hedonic) and functional (utilitarian) value of products and services over different online forums. In this article, we describe how online opinion leaders can serve appeal leadership functions, serve knowledge leadership functions, and take multiple roles (e.g., experts, celebrities, micro-celebrities, micro-influencers, early adopters, market mavens, enthusiasts). We then present a five-stage planning process designed to guide partnerships with online opinion leaders. Specific steps in the process include: planning (setting the objectives of the campaign and the role of online opinion leaders), recognition (identifying influential and relevant online opinion leaders), alignment (matching online opinion leaders and online forums with the products or services promoted), motivation (rewarding online opinion leaders in a way that aligns with their social role), and coordination (negotiating, monitoring, and supporting the influence of the online opinion leaders).
The aim of the study is to analyse the opportunities and challenges of emergency remote teaching based on experiences of the COVID-19 emergency. A qualitative research method was undertaken in two ...steps. In the first step, a thematic analysis of an online discussion forum with international experts from different sectors and countries was carried out. In the second step (an Italian case study), both the data and the statements of opinion leaders from secondary online sources, including web articles, statistical data and legislation, were analysed. The results reveal several technological, pedagogical and social challenges. The technological challenges are mainly related to the unreliability of Internet connections and many students’ lack of necessary electronic devices. The pedagogical challenges are principally associated with teachers’ and learners’ lack of digital skills, the lack of structured content versus the abundance of online resources, learners’ lack of interactivity and motivation and teachers’ lack of social and cognitive presence (the ability to construct meaning through sustained communication within a community of inquiry). The social challenges are mainly related to the lack of human interaction between teachers and students as well as among the latter, the lack of physical spaces at home to receive lessons and the lack of support of parents who are frequently working remotely in the same spaces. Based on the lessons learned from this worldwide emergency, challenges and proposals for action to face these same challenges, which should be and sometimes have been implemented, are provided.
In this paper, we examine how a research institution’s social structure and the presence of academic opinion leaders shaped the early adoption of a scientific innovation. Our case considers the early ...engagement of mathematical economists at the Cowles Commission with John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern’s
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.
We argue that scholars with administrative leadership functions who were not only scientifically but also organizationally central—in our case Jacob Marschak, the director of research at Cowles—played a crucial role in promoting the early adoption of the
Theory of Games
. We support our argument with a scientometric analysis of all acknowledgments made in 488 papers published from 1944 to 1955 in the two main research paper series at the Cowles Commission. We apply blockmodeling techniques to the acknowledgments network to reconstruct the formal and informal social structure at Cowles at the time. Our case study emphasizes the importance of formal and informal social structures and the research agendas of academic opinion leaders to explain the early engagement with and adoption of innovative scientific ideas. Studies of the early adoption of scientific theories can benefit from complementary perspectives on the role of academic opinion leaders and scientists in explaining theory adoption.
Background
Current guidelines for the treatment of adult severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) consist of high-quality evidence reports, but they are no longer accompanied by management protocols, as ...these require expert opinion to bridge the gap between published evidence and patient care. We aimed to establish a modern sTBI protocol for adult patients with both intracranial pressure (ICP) and brain oxygen monitors in place.
Methods
Our consensus working group consisted of 42 experienced and actively practicing sTBI opinion leaders from six continents. Having previously established a protocol for the treatment of patients with ICP monitoring alone, we addressed patients who have a brain oxygen monitor in addition to an ICP monitor. The management protocols were developed through a Delphi-method-based consensus approach and were finalized at an in-person meeting.
Results
We established three distinct treatment protocols, each with three tiers whereby higher tiers involve therapies with higher risk. One protocol addresses the management of ICP elevation when brain oxygenation is normal. A second addresses management of brain hypoxia with normal ICP. The third protocol addresses the situation when both intracranial hypertension and brain hypoxia are present. The panel considered issues pertaining to blood transfusion and ventilator management when designing the different algorithms.
Conclusions
These protocols are intended to assist clinicians in the management of patients with both ICP and brain oxygen monitors but they do not reflect either a standard-of-care or a substitute for thoughtful individualized management. These protocols should be used in conjunction with recommendations for basic care, management of critical neuroworsening and weaning treatment recently published in conjunction with the Seattle International Brain Injury Consensus Conference.
Abstract
Opinion leaders can be influential in persuading their peers about news and politics, yet their potential influence has been questioned in the social media era. This study tests a ...theoretical model of attempts at political persuasion within social media in which highly active users (“prosumers”) consider themselves opinion leaders, which subsequently increases efforts to try and change others’ political attitudes and behaviors. Using two-wave U.S. panel survey data (W1 = 1,816; W2 = 1,024), we find prosumers believe they are highly influential in their social networks and are both directly and indirectly more likely to try to persuade others. Our results highlight one theoretical mechanism through which engaged social media users attempt to persuade others and suggest personal influence remains viable within social media.
PDF
